The Strong One
by MichelleTheVampGirl
Summary: This is the untold story of Cato, the feast, the death of Thresh, and what was inside the backpack for district 2. Rated T to be safe, includes blood and gore *One Shot*


"Cato!"

I hear her shriek from our campsite in the woods, and I immediately know that something has gone very wrong. I bolt up, spear in hand and turn my head in the direction of the meadow with its giant Cornucopia, frantically trying to work out how long it will take me to get there, and if I will be too late.

I can hear her scream my name again, this time it's louder, more panicked, and my pace quickens as I crash through the trees.

All I can think about is saving her.

And how stupid I was to let her go.

...

"_This is no ordinary feast. Each of you needs something desperately."_

_I was sitting in our makeshift camp, a giant sheet of plastic strung up between a set of trees that functioned as a shelter. Clove had been clever enough to carry it in her pack before our supplies had been destroyed, and we were forced to survive on whatever we had on us. She always had been more cautious then the rest of us, constantly thinking of solutions to worst case scenarios. I don't know what I would do without her. _

_Claudius Templesmith's announcement didn't come as a surprise to either of us. We had studied the games our entire lives, and we knew that there was always a feast of some sort. But I wasn't sure what we needed desperately. I had everything I needed right here in this camp._

_Clove cocked her head to one side and shot me a wicked grin._

"_What do you think Cato? It could be a good opportunity to kill some of the others."_

_She was already picking up her pack and rationing out our remaining food. I smiled and shook my head at her, so practical, so reliable. _

"_Feasts not til tomorrow Clove. But we will _defiantly_ make an appearance"_

_Clove held up a hand to stop my advances and rolled her eyes dramatically. _

"_We have to be smart about this Cato. You think twelve is going to just go in there with Lover Boy? She'll be alone." Clove crossed her arms over her chest and smiled at me triumphantly._

"_Of course he won't be with her. He should be dead by now." I grumbled angrily, running a finger down the blade of my sword, still splattered in that traitorous, cowardly, snivelling excuse for a tribute from district twelve. The fact that he was still alive was an insult to my skill._

"_I know where I hit him" _

_Clove let out a snort of laughter and continued her preparations._

"_Regardless, she'll be alone, but she's still our biggest threat. If we both go in there, and if we both die, district two won't have a victor. One of us has to win these games Cato."_

_I sat up and crossed over to her, my hands tentatively reaching out to take hers in mine. She pulled away from me. _

"_I thought district two was going to have two victors this year." I told her softly, and then turned back to cleaning my sword on the moss. Clove avoided eye contact with me, and changed her position so she was crouched on the ground, her back to me. _

"_That the plan." She mumbled, and stood up abruptly, her pack fastened on her back._

"_But to be safe, only one of us needs to go to that feast."_

_I stood up and picked up the spear that used to be Marvel's. _

"_Ok, give me the pack and you stay here." I stretched out my hand to take the pack from her, but she took a step back, clutching the straps closer to her chest._

"_No!" she practically shouted at me, her mouth aghast. _

"_I mean," she controlled her expression and smiled at me sadistically. _

"_I want to go Cato. I want to kill that twelve bitch myself." _

_Something was off about her explanation, but I shrugged my shoulders dismissively, and sat down to sharpen Marvel's spear. _

"_Fine. But make sure..."my voice trailed off and I choked down the words I really wanted to say._

"_Make sure she dies painfully." I put as much harsh brutality into my voice as I could and smiled as Clove let out a laugh as she settled down on her sleeping bag for the night. _

_I stayed up for several hours watching her sleep soundlessly, before edging closer to her and using my fingers to stroke back a few strands of her dark brown hair. _

"_Make sure you come back to me." I whispered softly and bent down to kiss her cheek. _

_I laid out my own sleeping bag next to hers, and reached out and felt my fingers wrap themselves around hers. She mumbled something softly in her sleep, and rolled over onto her side. Right into my chest. I encircled her in my arms and pressed my face into her hair. _

_When I woke up the next morning, she was already gone. _

_..._

"Cato!" Her plea was strangled, and I burst through the trees just in time to see that monster of a tribute from district 11 smash a rock into her skull. As Clove dropped to the ground, I heard an animalistic roar of pain, and realised it came from me. I sprinted towards the cornucopia, but my attention wasn't focused on the table with the district two backpack, or on Thresh, or even on that girl from twelve who was there too, all I could see was Clove's body crumpled on the ground.

"No, please no!" I panted as I reached her body, and propped her up in my arms. I could see a dent in her skull from where Thresh's rock had hit her, and I knew instantly, with a sinking heart, that she wouldn't make it. Clove's eyelids flickered and she coughed pitifully, convulsing in my arms. I buried my face in her hair to stifle my cries of agony.

Not Clove!

I could handle losing Glimmer, and I had always resented that snobby, arrogant, Marvel. But Clove? I really had believed we could both win these games and leave together. But she had insisted on coming to this stupid feast.

"Cato?" she spluttered, coughing blood into my hair. I lifted my head and looked her in the eyes, trying to keep my own focused on her face, but my vision was blurred, and my eyes stung.

"I'm here. It's ok" I stroked her face reassuringly, but my fingers trembled as they touched her skin.

"I'm sorry." I let out a bitter laugh at her fragile voice, her whispered apology that made no sense to me.

"I didn't kill her."

It seemed so pointless, such a ridiculous thing to apologize for, that the hysterical choking laugh continued to burst from my lips.

"I don't care about that, Clove." My voice choked over her name, as my thumb traced her cheek. Her eyelids continued to flutter, and I knew she was slipping away from me. The bubbling hysteria welled up inside me, and I slapped her cheeks with my hands until her eyes were wide and staring at my face again. I let out a sigh of relief.

"What do you care about Cato?" she whispered raggedly, each word was coupled with a trickle of blood escaping from her lips, trailing down her face and running over my hands.

I spoke without thinking.

"I care about you."

Clove blinked a few times, her breathing becoming more hitched, and her eyelids threatened to close. I wouldn't let her leave me just yet. I continued to slap her face until she rolled over coughing up blood into the ground beside me while I watched horror stricken. She rolled into my arms, and I cradled her on my lap like a child, her head nestled in my shoulder.

"I care about you too."

Her words were so faint and so distant, but I could still hear them. I held her tightly in my arms, my fingers tracing her hair. We sat like this for a while until I heard it, the unmistakable sound of a canon firing in the air.

I picked up Clove gently, turned her over, and laid her down on the ground. Her eyes were closed, her chest motionless.

Clove was dead.

I held onto her hands and leaned forward into her chest, sobbing until my pain leeched into anger.

I sat up and ran my hand across my face to dry my tears, but instead smeared Clove's blood over my face.

A white hot anger consumed me as I sat up and ran into the forest without casting a glance back at Clove. And why would I? She was gone, and all that was left was a lifeless husk that had once held her spirit, her fire, her determination, and everything that made her up into a woman I had overlooked for far too long, and only recently realised how much I needed her.

Thresh would pay for her murder.

I was going to make sure of it.

I spent the rest of the day running, fuelled by resentment, occasionally screaming his name so he knew I was coming for him. I wanted him to realise how unhinged I had become. Clove's death had taken everything from me, and I would make sure he could physically feel the pain I felt inside.

I eventually found him. He jumped me, and tried to attack me with my own sword, but despite his size, my anger made me strong, strong enough to overpower him. Within minutes, Thresh's body lay at my feet, but I continued to cut him with my sword, unable to release all of the anger from my body. I continued to mutilate his body until it was unrecognisable, just hunks of what had once been limbs lying in a pool of blood.

But I didn't feel any better.

I threw my sword at the ground and watched it bounce away, cutting away a bush and revealing a little hollow with two backpacks stowed away. The backpacks from the feast.

I pulled them out, trying to distract myself from the hollowness and the rage still burning inside me. I opened the backpack labelled 11 first. Inside I found a sturdy mesh suit. Body armour. I tossed it aside, subconsciously realising its value, but not willing to accept that the fight was still raging, and that now I had three opponents, but no one to face them with. No one to hold at night and kiss on the cheek when she didn't realise it. Did Clove ever know how much I cared about her?

I picked up the bag labelled with a large number two and turned it over.

Something we had desperately needed?

I upturned it, and let the contents spill out.

It couldn't have been more obvious that the game makers were just as clueless as we had been. Food, water, matches. Nothing of substantial value.

A piece of paper fluttered away from me, and I watched it fly away, trying to figure out if I could be bothered chasing it. When suddenly the wind blew the paper around and I could see what was on it.

A photograph.

Clove's face smiled at me. It was taken from her interview prior to the games when she had been so beautiful it took my breath away. I hadn't realised it at the time but now I did. Clove really was beautiful, and I had let her slip away.

The photo blew away and was lost in the forest, when suddenly I realised the game maker's motivation of putting the photo in the backpack.

What I desperately needed, above everything else, was her.

And she was gone.

Somewhere in the distance I heard the growl of a wolf, but I remained kneeling on the ground, eyes on the direction the photo had blown in.

Clove was gone.

And that meant that there were still three other contestants in the arena.

I picked myself up off the ground and donned Thresh's body armour.

They better hope they die before I get my hands on them, because I still had enough fight in me to hunt down each and every one of them, and make them pay for what happened to Clove, what I had lost.

I was a man without anything left to lose.

I was a man fuelled by vengeance.

I was a man determined to win.

And before this day was over, I was going to spill all of their blood.

For Clove.


End file.
